Daily Search Forum Recap: February 5, 2009

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

IM Charity Party at SMX West
As many of you know, SMX West is next week and we are live blogging the sessions. The Internet Marketers Charity Party will be there as well. There is an $40 open bar from 8pm-12am on Tuesday, February 10th at Yahoo on 2821 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA. If you are not able to attend, you can still donate over here and support the wonderful charities they give money to. I hope to be

Webmasters Call Yahoo's "Search Pad" A Big Scraper Tool
Yesterday, Yahoo released a new tool to help you take notes while you conduct research with Yahoo Search. The tool is named Yahoo Search Pad and you can learn exactly how it works with this quick video: @ Yahoo! Video There is discussion around this tool at WebmasterWorld. The discussion is not all that positive. Most consider this tool to be an elegant scraping tool, stealing webmaster content, with ease. Some want to know how

If There Is Still a Google Sandbox, Is it US Based Only?
It has been a while since we really discussed the "Google Sandbox." The Google Sandbox goes back to April 2004. We first spotted it when I wrote New Sites = Poor Results in Google, then it became known as the Sandbox effect and had controversial definitions. Matt Cutts confirmed the sandbox existed, somewhat, in his Coffee Talk with Brett Tabke. But since then, we really did not discuss it much. So why bring it up

Google AdWords Offers Advice Low Traffic Keywords
In the Google AdWords forum, Google posts various tips every couple weeks or so. The latest tip, I found to be very interesting and thought some of our readers would benefit from it. It is on the topic of how to maximize your visibility on low traffic keywords. AdWordsPro Sarah who posted the tip first recommended trying to utilize the content network. She said the content network saying, you "have an understanding of the type

Small Yahoo Search Update Two Weeks Later?
On January 19th we reported about a Yahoo update that many SEOs and webmasters took note of. The thing is, Yahoo never officially confirmed that shuffling as a update. Now, I am seeing new reports of a Yahoo update at WebmasterWorld. Two different webmasters reported drops in their rankings. Here is what they said: I have seen major drop down in my SE ranking for all of my keywords, even that my 9 out of

Google AdWords API Version 12 Sunsetting on February 23, 2009
This is a warning to anyone still using version 12 of the Google AdWords API. Google has announced in a Google Groups thread, amongst other places, that they will stop supporting it on February 23, 2009. AdWords API version 13 has been available since October and if you have not yet upgraded, it is time to do so now. Jeff Posnick from the Google API team said, "the latest versions of the publicly available official

SMX West '09 Live Blog Coverage Schedule: True Live Blogging
The SMX West 2009 conference is just around the corner, starting on February 10th. We will be providing a different style of live blogging then you are use to from us. How will it differ? First of all, only I, Barry Schwartz, the editor of the Search Engine Roundtable and Keri Morget of Morgret Designs with be providing live coverage. Second, we are using a live blogging tool to provide the real time coverage. The